Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde (Thursday Next: Book 2)

9/10

Thursday Next, literary detective and newlywed, is back to embark on an adventure that begins, quite literally on her own doorstep. It seems that Landen, her husband of four weeks, actually drowned in an accident when he was two years old. Someone, somewhere, sometime, is responsible. The sinister Goliath Corporation wants its operative Jack Schitt out of the poem in which Thursday trapped him, and it will do almost anything to achieve this - but bribing the ChronoGuard? Is that possible?

Having barely caught her breath after The Eyre Affair, Thursday must battle corrupt politicians, try to save the world from extinction, and help the Neanderthals to species self-determination. Mastadon migrations, journeys into Just William, a chance meeting with the Flopsy Bunnies, and violent life-and-death struggles in the summer sales are all part of a greater plan.

But whose? and why?

Lost in a Good Book is a fantastic title for a book about stories and lives on the written page. Haven’t we all, now and again, been caught reading a good book and felt like the book was reality around us? In this second book Thursday Next is discovering that that is exactly what she can do after her adventures in the Eyre Affair (review here if you haven’t read The Eyre Affair, please do not read further on) where she was able to jump into Jane Eyre with the help of her Uncle’s invention.

Just when Thursday thought everything was going well, married to Landen with life just calming down after the excitement of the Eyre Affair, she has to deal with her reality crashing around her and being on her own again. Luckily Thursday is resourceful and the book has a cast of supporting characters who are well written and, like the rest of the book, amazingly quirky. These include Thursday’s time travelling father who always manages to visit Thursday in the nick of time. As well as her work colleague Bowden, who has a very level head when dealing with Thursday’s problems. We also meet new characters such as Miss Havisham from Great Expectations, who has apprenticed Thursday into Jurisfication which is almost like a police force that polices the inside of books, which is not unlike Thursday’s day job Spec-Ops27.

The world of Thursday Next is imaginative and set in a very different world of 1985 with Gravitubes, Mammoths, Dodos and Neanderthals along with some of the best names you will read in many a book. This is a zany, fast paced book where you can’t help but need to know what happens. Thursday Next has gone from strength to strength in her first two adventures. This is a world that has many contradictions, but if you have the imagination to follow you will not be disappointed.